Recent advances and developments in packet networks, consumer premises equipment, network servers, and client software provide a synergistic environment for the development of new communication modes and complexities. Packet networks, including private intranets and the Internet, are becoming ubiquitous features of the public and private telecommunications infrastructures. Client premises equipment includes such disparate device types as personal computers, cable modems, screen phones and personnel digital assistants, which singly and collectively enable a richer and more robust user interaction and interface via screens, input devices, and multimedia capabilities. E-mail is now a standard form of communication and information exchange. Telephony via the personal computer and shared collaboration are widely accepted and utilization of these modes are growing daily. A new form of communication, instant messaging, is also becoming prevalent as a private extension to chat groups and is in use by over ten million people today. Instant messaging allows end users to select "buddies" and assign these buddies to "buddy groups," automatically register a person when on-line, advertise the user's selected buddies to the user when the selected buddies register on-line, advertise the user's presence on-line to others who have selected the user as a buddy, and participate in instant messaging communication between two on-line users.
Many developers provide proprietary software for enabling instant messaging between on-line users, including but not limited to America Online, General Magic, Inc., and Mirabilis. Standards are currently being developed to develop a uniform protocol for packaging and transporting instant messages. Such standardization will only serve to act as a catalyst to spur greater instant messaging use, new standard network servers, and new and improved client software.
Historically, each of the communication modes and channels have been disparate and disjoint in nature. For example, Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) voice communications were not compatible nor interconnected with e-mail communications, which in turn were not compatible nor interconnected with wireless communications. Typically, each separate communication or data channel and mode maintained its own client message/data storage and retrieval mechanism. For instance, separate mailboxes were maintained for PSTN voice messages, wireless voice messages, e-mail messages. However, there is currently a remarkable flurry of interest and activity in providing a unified messaging solution, typically proposed as having a single storage repository or mailbox for a plurality of message/data modes and channels. Single number location solutions now provide users such services as notification when critical e-mail is received, text to speech conversion of e-mail when it is desired to receive a written e-mail over a user's wired or wireless phone, and the ability to aggregate incoming communications at a single location. These and other unified messaging solutions offer a user a powerful synergistic combination of communication, convenience, simplicity of use, services, and features. Key in providing such a unified messaging solution is the ability to locate a user, communicate from the service to the user, offer a selection of communication options to the user, and solicit responses from the user regarding those communication option choices. Unfortunately, a truly unified messaging solution which is able to accomplish each of these tasks, irrespective of the channel, mode, and CPE device which the user may be using, has not yet been fully realized.